Philosophy Professor David Anderson will be teaching PHI 315: The Nature of Mind and Language in spring 2016.

The course will begin with an exploration of a dramatic revolution in thinking about the nature of mind and language that began in the 1960s and now is the dominant view. We will call it Functional Externalism. In spite of its virtues, there is a new theory, with old roots, that challenges it. We’ll call it Phenomenal Internalism.

These two philosophical pictures will be carefully examined, and each student will be asked to weigh in on many facets of this dispute. This will be one of the central philosophical controversies of the next 60 years, and we will jump into the middle of it and have some exciting discussions.